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Wanna hear something weird? It’s our 425th edition of The Windup, and the date is 4/25! So we decided to lean into it. Here are four mini-stories about players who wore No. 25 on their jerseys.
And, uh … I stumbled on a theory. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal. Happy Friday!
The Glaring 25: Barry Bonds, obviously
I come not to praise Bonds, but to Barry him.
OK no, no, I’m just kidding. I think Barry Bonds is the greatest hitter of all time. But I couldn’t pass up that pun.
Look, there’s just no way around it: Bonds did things that no other human has ever done. And I think it’s a real shame that he did them in the steroid era, because even without any (I am legally required to say alleged) external assistance, he was still brilliant.
I’m not the first to point this out, but 1998 is the first year Bonds’ chemistry is under suspicion. So let’s look at his stats from 1986-1997. (He started wearing 25 in 1993.)
- 91.8 bWAR, 374 home runs, 417 stolen bases, .288/.408/.551 (.959 OPS).
- Three MVP awards (plus a second-, fourth- and two fifth-place finishes).
- Seven Gold Gloves, seven Silver Sluggers and an OPS+ of 162 (62 percent better than league average).
If he had chosen to simply retire right then, at age 32, he would have been a Hall of Famer. No question.
Instead, he went on to put up numbers so absurd that they require a Jon Bois video to truly put them into perspective. Bonds’ on-base percentage from 1998-2007 was .496! Take that as a byproduct of the era, or leave it (as Hall of Fame voters have done) as an unfair advantage. But there’s no denying that Bonds was one of — if not the — best.
More Bonds, sorta: Chris Kirschner has a story today about how Aaron Judge is doing some Bondsian things. I was skeptical before I read it, but he makes some compelling points!
Ken’s Notebook: Rafael Palmeiro, the forgotten one
Call him the Forgotten No. 25.
For a time, Rafael Palmeiro was one of only four members of the 500-homers, 3,000-hit club, along with Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Eddie Murray. Three others later joined the list — Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and Alex Rodriguez. All but Palmeiro and Rodriguez figure to end up in the Hall of Fame. The reason: Palmeiro and Rodriguez were linked to performance-enhancing drugs.
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The lasting image of Palmeiro’s career is not of his sweet left-handed swing. No, it’s of him pointing his finger during a congressional hearing about PEDs in March 2005, saying, “Let me start by telling you this: I have never used steroids, period. I don’t know how to say it any more clearly than that. Never.”
Less than five months later, Palmeiro’s reputation shattered. Two weeks after he recorded his 3,000th hit, Major League Baseball suspended Palmeiro 10 days for testing positive for stanozolol, a powerful anabolic steroid.
It was later reported that Palmeiro, in challenging the test before an arbitrator, said his positive test possibly resulted from a tainted vitamin B12 sample he received from Miguel Tejada, a Baltimore Orioles teammate.
Tejada, the Orioles and baseball’s Health Policy Advisory Committee, comprised of union and management representatives, disputed Palmeiro’s assertion. Palmeiro struggled after returning from his suspension. With a month remaining in the season, the Orioles sent him home.
Palmeiro, now 60, has barely been heard from since.
Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, two other players linked to PEDs, returned to the sport as major-league coaches. Rodriguez, who received a 162-game suspension for PED violations and sued MLB, was honored with a farewell ceremony by the New York Yankees and became an analyst with Fox Sports.
Palmeiro attempted a comeback in 2018 at age 53, joining his son, Patrick, with the Cleburne Railroaders, an independent team. In a story I wrote for The Athletic about that quest, his wife, Lynne, told me, “I just feel there is such a hypocrisy about baseball players who have tested positive and the way they are viewed. I feel Rafael is held under a completely different microscope than just about anybody else. And I don’t understand it.”
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Palmeiro said he blamed no one but himself for his disappearance from the sport. He fell off the writers’ ballot for the Hall of Fame after receiving less than 5 percent of the vote in his fourth year of eligibility. In 2022, he was denied again, this time by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee. Eight of 12 votes were necessary for election. Palmeiro received fewer than four.
He is the Forgotten No. 25.
The Longest 25: Tommy John (the man, not the surgery)
Fun fact: Nobody has worn the number 25 for more seasons than Tommy John, who wore it for 24 years.
Of course, that’s not what most people think of when they hear his name. You might know him by what sounds like a hyphenated last name: “Tommy John-Surgery” — a reconstruction of the ulnar collateral ligament. A year-plus of rehab. (It is also, perplexingly, underwear. No idea.)
“I didn’t name it Tommy John surgery,” John said in an interview with Dan Patrick last fall. “Dr. Jobe did. He’s the one who stuck me with that.”
But what about his on-field accomplishments? I think the association with bad news has overshadowed a very good career. He finished 12 wins short of 300, and … well, check out this chart:
Tommy John: underrated?
| Pitcher | Pitching bWAR | Batting bWAR | Total bWAR |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Tommy John |
62.1 |
-0.5 |
61.6 |
|
CC Sabathia |
61.8 |
0.5 |
62.3 |
|
David Cone |
61.6 |
0.7 |
62.3 |
|
Don Drysdale |
61.4 |
5.8 |
67.2 |
|
Juan Marichal |
61.8 |
1.0 |
62.8 |
That’s right: Tommy John had more pitching bWAR than Sabathia, Cone, Drysdale or Marichal. The only reason his career total bWAR is below theirs: he was a terrible hitter. (Side note: Don Drysdale had 29 career home runs!)
And sure, some of these numbers are because he pitched for 26 years. That was longer than any pitcher that had come before him (though the record was later broken by Nolan Ryan). But Sabathia, Drysdale and Marichal are in the Hall of Fa——
Uhh…
Three sections into this newsletter, I’m realizing in real time that I might have a conspiracy theory cooking here.
Is No. 25 a Hall of Fame curse?
Actually… [steps onto soapbox, readies megaphone]
This Theory Has Legs: … because Buddy Bell should be in the Hall of Fame
Take a look at this list of notable No. 25s.
- Barry Bonds: 22 years, 162.8 bWAR, not in the Hall
- Rafael Palmeiro: 20 years, 71.8 bWAR, not in the Hall
- Buddy Bell: 18 years, 66.3 bWAR, not in the hall
- Andruw Jones: 17 years, 62.7 bWAR, not in the hall
- Mark McGwire: 16 seasons, 62.2 bWAR, not in the Hall
- Tommy John: 26 seasons, 61.6 bWAR, not in the Hall
- Jim Edmonds: 17 years, 60.4 bWAR, not in the Hall
Norm Cash, José Cruz, Don Baylor, Bobby Bonds: all on the outside looking in.
You know who is in the Hall of Fame? Harmon Killebrew, George Brett, Al Kaline and Mike Piazza, each of whom debuted wearing No. 25 before getting out of it as fast as possible — Killebrew mostly wore 3, Brett 5, Kaline 6 and Piazza 31.
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(Also theory-buster Jim Thome, who wore No. 25 for 21 seasons — second only to John. But he is the only Hall of Famer who wore primarily No. 25.)
We’ve already outlined why some of those guys aren’t in (allegedly, and all). But with apologies to Ken, I think there’s a more-forgotten No. 25: Buddy Bell, who I sincerely believe should be in the Hall of Fame.
The short argument is: Third basemen are underrepresented in the Hall. I don’t think we have taken into account how challenging the position is, defensively. And speaking of defense … Bell won six straight Gold Gloves, from 1979-84.
There’s a lot more to it than that, though. I made a much longer argument back in 2020 when we had nothing else to write about, so we aired our grievances for fun. I can admit: HOFer Buddy Bell is not a popular opinion. But I stand by it!
Anyway, parents: Teach your kids to throw left-handed, and don’t let them wear No. 25.
Handshakes and High Fives
You had to know it was coming. That Diamondbacks-Cubs game was just begging for the Jayson Stark Weird & Wild treatment. Here ya go!
Tyler Kepner’s “Sliders” column this week is written by — not making this up — a character from an upcoming Simpsons episode.
Jim Bowden has reasons to be optimistic and/or pessimistic about all 30 teams.
More like Sophomore Success for Pete Crow-Armstrong. The Cubs are creating an atmosphere to let the 23-year-old outfielder thrive.
Jeff McNeil and Francisco Alvarez have come off the IL for the Mets, bumping Brett Baty to the minors. Plus: So far, so good for Clay Holmes as a starter in Queens. Can he keep this up?
“Throw strikes” isn’t a new philosophy. But it’s the one propelling Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene to ace status.
It’s not as if the Phillies didn’t address their bullpen at all this offseason. But Jordan Romano hasn’t been great, and the rest of the pen hasn’t been much better.
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Carlos Correa isn’t dealing with any injury. In his words, he is “dealing with my swing sucks right now.”
Most-clicked in our last newsletter: Zack Meisel’s story on how Steven Kwan gained a “mental edge.”
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